The 50 Greatest Folklore Books of All Time

The following is an aggregate list sourced from over 480 "Greatest Books of All Time" lists curated by TheGreatestBooks. The full list can be found here. (updated as of 2/14/25)

1. One Thousand and One Nights - Unknown (800)
2. Fairy Tales and Stories - Hans Christian Andersen (1835)
3. Epic of Gilgamesh - Unknown (2100 BCE)
4. Finnegans Wake - James Joyce (1939)
5. Mahabharata - Vyasa (400 BCE)
6. Journey to the West - Wu Cheng'en (1592)
7. Gypsy Ballads - Federico García Lorca (1928)
8. Household Tales - Brothers Grimm (1812)
9. Ramayana - Valmiki (200 BCE)
10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum (1900)
11. Le Morte d'Arthur - Thomas Malory (1485)
12. The Golden Bough - James George Frazer (1890)
13. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter (1902)
14. Rhymes And Legends - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1871)
15. The Water Margin - Shi Naian (1370)
16. The Enchanted Wanderer - Nikolai Leskov (1873)
17. Kalīla wa-Dimna - Anonymous (750)
18. Mythology - Edith Hamilton (1942)
19. The Nibelungenlied - Anonymous (1200)
20. Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka - Nikolai Gogol (1831)
21. Aesop's Fables - Aesop (560 BCE)
22. Beowulf - Unknown (1000)
23. Panchatantra - Unknown (300 BCE)
24. La Fontaine's Fables - Jean de La Fontaine (1668)
25. Tales Of Hulan River - Xiao Hong (1942)
26. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter - Unknown (900)
27. Martín Fierro - José Hernández (1872)
28. Tristan - Gottfried von Strassburg (1210)
29. The Black Spider - Jeremias Gotthelf (1842)
30. Lake Wobegon Days - Garrison Keillor (1985)
31. The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories - Angela Carter (1979)
32. Love in the Western World - Denis de Rougemont (1939)
33. The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen - Alan Garner (1960)
34. Tent of Miracles - Jorge Amado (1969)
35. Tales of Amadou Koumba - Birago Diop (1947)
36. Forest of A Thousand Daemons - Daniel O. Fagunwa (1938)
37. The History Of The Yorubas - Reverend Samuel Johnson (1921)
38. Macunaíma - Mario de Andrade (1928)
39. The Adventures Of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi (1883)
40. Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock (1984)
41. The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault - Charles Perrault (1697)
42. Oriental Tales - Marguerite Yourcenar (1938)
43. The Tale Of Cross Eyed Lefty From Tula And The Steel Flea - Nikolai Leskov (1881)
44. The Tale Of Igor's Campaign - Unknown (1187)
45. Italian Folktales - Italo Calvino (1956)
46. Soundjata Ou L'épopée Mandingue - Djibril Tamsir Niane (1960)
47. The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell (1949)
48. The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. - Washington Irving (1819)
49. Indaba, My Children - Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa (1964)
50. Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston (1942)